MORE THAN 150 KIDS AND PARENTS showed up to a bowling event in North Versailles, Oct. 30; a positive event in light of the recent shooting death that occurred at a haunted house in the area weeks earlier. (Photo by Rob Taylor Jr.)
Some kids and their parents bowled perfect strikes; others bowled the dreaded gutter balls.
But truthfully, no one was keeping score. The only thing that mattered was that kids and their parents got a chance to have fun together in a safe environment.
A group of Woodland Hills High School graduates, now in their 30s, sponsored a bowling event in North Versailles, Oct. 30, as a way to provide a positive outlet for area kids, after a shooting at the nearby Haunted Hills Hayride left a 15-year-old dead and yet another scar on Pittsburgh’s Black community.
KIDS IN HALLOWEEN COSTUMES AT THE BOWLING EVENT….(PHOTO BY DIANE DANIELS)
“This is great,” said Jaquan Leech, a 2003 Woodland Hills High graduate who helped put on the event at New Great Valley Lanes. “The community needs this. It’s something for the kids to come out in a safe environment, a family-oriented environment.”
JAQUAN LEECH AND ALLON WALLACE helped sponsor the bowling event for the kids in North Versailles. (Photo by Rob Taylor Jr.)
With the event falling on Halloween weekend, many kids were dressed in their favorite costumes. More than 150 kids and parents took part in the daytime bowling, which also featured bags of candy for the kids.
“I feel like often, there aren’t many parents who hang out with their children outside of the normal confines,” said Allon Wallace, the lead organizer of the event. He said the bowling event gave parents a prime opportunity to spend quality time with their kids.
FUN TIMES HAD AT THE BOWLING EVENT…(PHOTO BY DIANE DANIELS)
D’Jamar Sanders took his son, niece and nephew to the bowling event. “As adults, we want somewhere that is safe,” he said.
The shocking, brazen shooting on the night of Sept. 11 at the Haunted Hills Hayride still lingers in people’s minds. Fifteen-year-old Steven Eason, a sophomore at Central Catholic High School, was shot and killed while trying to break up an altercation between the suspect and another person. The suspect also shot a Penn Hills High School student, who survived.
There have been no arrests in the case, even as Eason’s mother, Shantel Pizaro, pleaded with those in the community to come forward with information.
“We need this person off of the streets,” Pizaro said, Oct. 1. “At some point, us as adults, we have to come forward to make a change. Where are the adults leading these children down the right path? Someone has to do it. We need to teach our kids the right morals, teach them the right way to go.”
Gun violence in the local Black community is going to be an area of major focus for incoming Pittsburgh mayor Ed Gainey, the first African American mayor elected in the city. The 51-year-old grew up in East Liberty, and now lives in Lincoln-Lemington.
“We can build the safest city in America,” Gainey said during his victory speech at the Benedum Center, Nov. 2. “We can have a city where our kids don’t have to walk to school and see negativity, but see clean positivity, so when they enter the classroom, their minds can learn.”
Wallace, a 2004 Woodland Hills High graduate, is no stranger to sponsoring positive events. In June, he hosted a barbecue for Father’s Day at a local park. On Nov. 21, he’s planning a turkey giveaway at a basketball court in East McKeesport.
As he waved good-bye to kids leaving the bowling event on Oct. 30, Wallace told the Courier he had this message for the youth: “When you’re at your lowest point, that’s when you bounce up and be a winner.”
THE YOUTH—SAVANNAH, JAMES AND D’JAMAR, with dad/uncle D’Jamar Sanders, at the bowling event. (Photo by Rob Taylor Jr.)
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